The Macra Terror

The Doctor and company tread warily upon the next planet where they land, for on the TARDIS scanner they have seen a giant claw waiting for them courtesy of the time scanner. The planet, however, does not seem to pose much of a threat and indeed is one of the happiest places in the galaxy as far as anyone can see, with people happy to be working and singing songs as they go much like at a holiday camp. One of the colonists, though, has seen things; terrible evil things that only move at night. His story interests the Doctor, but the rulers of the colony do not want it told to anyone. The colony is being controlled by something, and before it can be stopped it has a hold over Ben and wants the rest of the travellers for its slaves.

Back we go into audio land with this one, although the first time I enjoyed it was in print form many years back when Target was playing catch up with the old story adaptations. I think I might have even had it in hardcover for a while before I passed it on through the wonderful new thing (at the time) called eBay. I remember not being too mad about the book; it read alright but it didn't really impress me beyond knowing I had now learned how the tale went. The audio was released on cassette back in the ninties with sixth Doctor Colin Baker providing the narration, and at the time it was great to be able to hear the serial at last and get a whole new take on what I had read. The same narration has been used on the BBC Radio Collection release although there are spots where there is obviously something going on (or would be if we could see it) but nothing to say what it is. A bit of a drag, that, after so many episodes narrated so well. And the other thing about the audio bit is the music; it's this kind of freaky overly perky synthesized stuff to make the colony cheerful but it's just a few steps off muzak in the end. This whole setup is a bit of a foundation for the planet Terra Alpha in The Happiness Patrol still years away at this point.

Story wise it's a simple one about mind control in the end. The colony itself is too good to be true with everything anyone could ever want, like being at a resort, Makeovers are given to the whole TARDIS crew, although the Doctor goes out of his way to mess himself up again, and Polly gets a much shorter haircut. The colonists, though, are so brainwashed they see anyone who spots the truth as ill and in need of help. Even when they spout off about how great it is to obey control they don't realize exactly what they are saying. The Doctor spots this and manages to interfere enough to spare Polly and Jamie from the brainwash but he's unable to save Ben who for a while becomes their greatest threat as he spies on and reports his companions to the authorities.

Which brings us to the monsters: the crab-like Macra. Unlike other monsters they don't actually speak, yet they have established control over the humans and have coerced them into working for them. The Macra are not seen very much aside from in darkened tunnels; production wise this would have more to do with logistics than anything else given the size of the prop that had been built. There might also be the question of how to show it move without having to try and devise a way for it to scuttle like a real crab. They do grab people a lot though with those big claws. There's something about big claws that just screams "monster" even if it's a lobster boiled red and served up with butter.

The Macra's goose cooked, the Doctor and company leave the colony and if it were not for Big Finish and BBC Books we would head right into the next televised episode, but there's more to enjoy first...

NEXT EPISODE: THE SELACHIAN GAMBIT